M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purposes of the study are to identify factors of creativity which have been revealed in the fields of personality and cognitive theory, art education, and science, and to formulate a base for a theory of creativity.

Doctor Educationis / The Basic Concepts Mediated Learning Programme (BCMLP) was developed to enhance the cognitive and scholastic functioning of learners who experience barriers to learning in the early years of schooling in the South African context. The study aimed to initiate a process of evaluation of the efficacy of this metacognitive programme with Grade 2 learners from the ‘Cape Flats’, an historically disadvantaged community in Cape Town. The study was conducted simultaneously in two local education authorities by independent teams of fieldworkers in each of the education authorities. This quantitative, quasi-experimental, non-equivalent comparison group design study was implemented with learners who were equally assigned to an Experimental group (N=54) or Comparison group (N=55). English home-language and Bilingual (English and Afrikaans) learners made up a majority of the study sample. The study was conducted in English. Extensive pre-test and post-test batteries consisting of cognitive (information-processing), cognitive modifiability (dynamic assessment), and scholastic tests were used to collect data. A number of structured interview schedules including post-intervention teacher rating scales were also used for the purpose of data gathering. The results from the parametric and non-parametric methods of data analysis selected, revealed a pattern of significant pre- to post-study cognitive and scholastic gains in scores for learners in both the Experimental and Comparison groups (p<0.05). In addition, it was found that the study participants, irrespective of their designation to the Experimental or Comparison group became more modifiable and demonstrated enhanced information-processing abilities at the end of the study. Significantly greater gains were, however, attained by learners in the Experimental group in a majority of the areas assessed (7 out of 12) (p<0.05). Learners in the Experimental group were also found to be more responsive to instruction and modifiable than learners in the Comparison group. Learners who participated in the BCMLP were found to benefit with respect to their knowledge of basic concepts, cognitive and scholastic functioning. However, it was not possible to infer from the current study that findings were attributable to any one specific procedure (mediational teaching, concept teaching, vocabulary teaching and teaching to enhance information-processing) or process (Basic Concept Teaching Model) of this metacognitive programme. Furthermore, the study had a number of limitations and findings should be regarded with some caution until replication studies can be completed and the long-term effects of the study can be evaluated. The study provides some evidence for the efficacy of short-term, small group intervention programmes implemented by Learning Support Teachers within disadvantaged communities. The study also provides some initial evidence for the efficacy of the BCMLP (a specially designed metacognitive programme). The BCMLP was found to be both appropriate and manageable for Learning Support Teachers to implement in the South African context / South Africa

Magister Psychologiae - MPsych / This study explored the effects of a teacher development programme based on Philosophy for Children. One of the challenges facing education in South Africa is that the school curriculum has to promote the development of values, such as respect for life, equality, protection of freedom and the right to an opinion, through creative and critical thinking. The theorists, Jean Piaget and Lev Vygotsky inform our understanding of cognitive development with the important notions of active involvement, mediated learning and the development of thinking skills. Many programmes have been developed to assist learners in this regard. One such programme is Philosophy for Children. This study located Philosophy for Children and the locally developed material, Stories for thinking, in Vygotskian theory and explored its application within a South African context. / South Africa

Current trends in technology have led to a need for creativity and innovation in the design of contemporary digital products and systems. This has resulted in design thinking and creative design process having a higher profile in digital design practice. In turn, this has impacted computing education, by creating a need for computing students to develop creativity and design thinking skills. Creative design is taught using design studio teaching methods, which require a culture, environment and activities that are different to the teaching methods used in traditional computing education. Some computing academics have implemented courses using aspects of studio teaching methods, but no clear guidelines for a computing academic without creative design experience to fully apply studio teaching methods in courses could be found. The reason for the change in the role of design in the digital domain and how it affected the needs of computing students was investigated and a comparison of typical design studio and computing teaching methods was conducted using a learning systems model adapted for this specific purpose. This led to an identification of areas that required further investigation, or gaps in the knowledge of how to adapt design studio methods for use within a traditional computing education environment. These gaps were used as the basis for identifying a set of research questions for an empirical study. An exploratory case study was conducted at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University to answer the research questions. Three computing academics implemented studio teaching methods within three separate modules, following provisional guidelines devised from the preliminary research. Feedback was collected from the lecturers and the students registered for the modules regarding their experiences. It was found that it would be possible for computing academics to implement aspects of a design studio approach within the existing computing environment. An explicit teaching method, termed the computing studio teaching method, was developed from the results of the case study. This teaching method aims to provide computing academics with little or no creative design experience with explicit methods for implementing modified design studio teaching methods in order to promote creativity and design thinking within traditional computing modules. This teaching method will be tested, validated and refined in future research.

La créativité s’exprime dans tous les domaines de l'activité humaine et devrait êtreparticulièrement utile pour faciliter les transitions psychologiques de la période del’adolescence. Après avoir examiné les principaux travaux actuels sur l’adolescence, lasocialisation et la créativité, cette recherche s’engage sur l’étude des relations entre créativitéet socialisation au moment de l’adolescence. 149 adolescents français et 173 adolescentssyriens ont répondu à un questionnaire comportant : des items adaptés des tests de Torrance,des questions originales permettant d’apprécier la socialisation scolaire, la perception de laréussite scolaire, la socialisation extra-Scolaire, et certaines caractéristiques familiales.L’objectif était d’apprécier si les relations entre créativité et socialisation sont analogues dansles deux contextes culturels, pas de comparer les performances créatives des deux groupesd’adolescents, et d’évaluer séparément le développement de la pensée créative dans les deuxpopulations.Les données ont été analysées principalement en repérant les corrélations significativesentre les divers indices de créativité et de socialisation. Une analyse qualitative desproductions créatives a également été menée. Dans l’ensemble, contrairement à noshypothèses, les corrélations entre créativité et socialisation se sont révélées plutôt faibles saufpour la perception de la réussite scolaire, et pour la pratique des activités extrascolaire. Ellessont également peu systématiques et diffèrent sur de nombreux points quand on compare lesdonnées françaises et syriennes. L’analyse qualitative permet également de montrer quel’évaluation de la créativité dépend des représentations culturelles et de l’expérience acquise. / Creativity is apparent in every domain of human activity. In particular, it should beespecially useful to facilitate the psychological transitions in the adolescent period. Followingan examination of main present studies on adolescence, socialization, and creativity, thisresearch contributes to investigate the relations between creativity and socialization duringadolescence. 149 French adolescents and 173 Syrian adolescents completed a questionnaireincluding items adapted from Torrance tests, original questions on school socialization,perception of school achievement, out of school socialization, and some family features. Theaim was to understand if the relations between creativity and socialization are analogous inthe two cultural contexts, not to compare the performance on creativity between the twoadolescent groups, and to evaluate independently the development of the creative thinking inboth samples.Data were mainly analyzed by stressing the significant correlations between the variousindex of creativity and socialization. A qualitative analysis of creative products was alsoconducted. As a whole, contrary to our hypothesis, the correlation between creativity andsocialization were quite low except for the perception of school achievement and the practiceof extracurricular activities. They were also not systematic and they differed in numerousaspects when French data and Syrian data were compared. Besides, the qualitative analysis letto show how creativity assessment depends on cultural representations and learnedexperiences.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (PhD (Technology Management))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

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Problem representation/problem finding skills are frequently the catalyst facilitating adroit knowledge base access and subsequent positive creative outcomes in adult populations. To determine whether judged creativity is similarly enhanced through young adolescents' use of a working title representation strategy within a curriculum knowledge base, 40 Latino partyicipants at two Southern California middle schools received brief written interactive directions for one of two different types of problem representation or a third, non-representational control group.

Although the Rorschach is one of the most widely used psychological assessment techniques, its empirical support has been equivocal. One possible explanation for this lack of empirical support is the tendency for researchers to study only the assessment tool with little regard for the clinician using it. In order to examine the relationship between accurate Rorschach interpretation and attributes of the clinicians employing the technique, 46 psychology graduate students were tested in terms of cognitive flexibility. Torrance's Thinking Creatively with Pictures and Cattell's 16-Personality Factor Questionnaire were used to derive various measures of cognitive flexibility. A two-stage multiple linear regression analysis was done. The most statistically reliable result was that flexibility of thought was found to be the single best mediator of accuracy of Rorschach interpretation. Other individual findings were noted and interpreted.